Waèl el Allouche

What if ‘light’ can be transcribed into a thing; a physical model that you can touch with both hands?

With his research project, Ways of Knowing – Materializing the Gaze, Amsterdam based artists and designer Waèl el Allouche materializes ‘light’. He uses a self-built scanning instrument that breaks light in a wider spectrum and a higher resolution than we as humans can observe. With scientific mapping, visualisation and 3D-printing techniques he brings information into the physical realm. Speculating further on the future possibilities of the augmented human body, he envisions this to be a performative embodied act of capturing and selecting. A tactile and perceivable understanding of ‘light’ and thus the world.

Going through this DIY processes for over three years, Waèl also started to question the existing western, scientific ways of sensing, mapping and creating knowledge. This led to his design-research project Orientalising Science, informed by the process of Ways of Knowing, and questions dominant frameworks for gaining and propagating knowledge in science and technology. He aims for a pluralization of perspectives and transforms invisible layers and phenomena into models that create alternative ways of knowing.

FIBER Weekends

FIBER Weekends 2018 is a new, decentralized art event about emerging developments in audiovisual art, electronic music, performances, creative coding, and advanced technologies. The two-day programme presents immersive performances, a conference, a club night and works from upcoming and established artists.